470-How Insect Allies Shape Human Culture
The joe gardener Show - Organic Gardening - Vegetable Gardening - Expert Garden Advice From Joe Lamp'l
Joe Lamp'l
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Gardeners often have a love-hate relationship with insects — loving the bees and ladybugs and hating the aphids and flea beetles, for example — but all insects have value, even if it isn't always apparent to us. To discuss how insect allies are important partners in gardens and elsewhere, joining me this week is entomologist and artist Barrett Klein.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everybody. I'm Joe Lampel, the Joe behind Joe Gardner, and welcome to the Joe Gardner Show. |
| 0:05.1 | My guest today is Dr. Barrett Klein, an entomologist, artist, and professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin, LaCross. |
| 0:12.6 | He studied entomology at Cornell and the University of Arizona, earned his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, working with honeybees, and he spent decades |
| 0:22.8 | exploring the intersection of science, art, and culture. His new book, The Insect Epiphany, |
| 0:28.3 | How Our Six-Leged Allies Shape Human Culture, is the kind of reed that makes you want |
| 0:32.5 | to walk outside and see your garden, and honestly, your whole world differently. From silk and honey to soil and pollination, |
| 0:39.9 | Barrett makes the case that insects haven't just shared our planet. |
| 0:43.1 | They've shaped our civilization. |
| 0:45.1 | I'm really glad to have Barrett on the podcast today, |
| 0:47.3 | and I think you will enjoy his fresh perspective |
| 0:49.6 | on growing in appreciation for insects and the vital role they have in this world. |
| 0:54.8 | So let's get started, and as we do, thanks to our sponsors for today's episode, Soil Cubed and |
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... |
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